Penny for your Thoughts
by Lily Handle
Summary: Alex Masters finds a lucky penny! A oneshot challenge I did for a Yahoogroup I belong to.


Penny For Your Thoughts By: Lily Handle  
  
Author's Note: This is my one shot challenge from the X of Evolution yahoo group, link at end of fic. I got the idea: Alex finds a lucky penny. This actually gave me a few minutes of pause but after throwing around a few ideas on this, I got this.  
  
Alex woke up to the sound of rain, and his mother's voice "Alex! You're going to be late for school! This is your last warning, get up!" Alex groaned, then caught a look at the bedside alarm clock.  
  
"Ah!" He yelled. Taken over by a sense of panic he scrambled out of bed and like a man possessed got ready for school. He raced through getting dressed, brushing his teeth and combing his hair. He shot through the kitchen like a rocket, pausing only to hug his mom and grab his backpack from a hook by the door. He made it out the door just in time to see the back end of the bright yellow school bus turn the corner. "Aw man!" Alex groaned, stopping to catch his breath before he started jogging after the bus. He wouldn't catch it, his house was the last stop before the bus went to the high school. He would just jog steadily following the bus route while getting pounded by rain. It was miserably cold, considering in Hawaii rain was usually pretty warm, rumbles of thunder and distant flashes of lighting meant the surfing trip he'd planned with his buddies after school was canceled. Oh, and if he didn't pass his math test his mom would probably ground him. What an unlucky day. Still jogging, Alex rounded the last corner and the sprawling buildings of the high school spread out before him in the distance. He started sprinting for it, hoping to hope that he'd make it before first bell. No luck, Alex thought as the bell rang loud and clear over the storm. He pushed a few strands of hair out of his eyes and stopped running. He was already late what was the point? Breathing hard, soaked to the bone, he started for his homeroom. When he opened the door to the room he only had a second to see his teacher's scowl before he slipped, landing on his back. Dazed he sat up and listened to the classroom laugh for a second, then something shinny caught his eye. Lying at his feet was a bright copper penny.  
  
"Are you going to join us, Mr. Masters?" The teacher asked.  
  
"Uh, yeah, sure," Alex got to his feet, and for some reason picked up the penny. Rubbing the little coin between his thumb and for-finger Alex went to his seat. Muttering about what a lousy day he was having under his breath, he took out a notebook and pretended to take notes.  
  
"Hey," Alex looked up, it was the pretty blonde girl who sat in front of him, "Are you alright?"  
  
A little stunned that such a hot girl was talking to him, Alex had a few moments of blank before he answered, "Oh, uh, yeah. Thanks."  
  
The blonde giggled, "It looked like you took a pretty hard fall, and soaking wet too. Did you miss the bus?"  
  
"Yeah," Why was that the only word he seemed to be able to say?  
  
The blonde giggled again, and then reached out a hand to pat his, which was draped over the top corner of his desk, "Well, I hope your day gets better." Then the blonde turned back around and Alex had a goofy grin on his face. The blonde, who he thought was an angel on earth, was flirting with him. His day was already looking up. The grin stuck with him through the rest of the class, even though he was dripping wet and hadn't a clue about what the teacher was talking about, which meant when the teacher asked him a question it was pure luck the he got the answer right. When the bell for second hour rang, Alex felt a cold ball of fear in his stomach; math was his next class and the dreaded test. Not even the blonde girl smiling and saying, "Hope to see you around," made the little ball go away. What was the point of matrix addition anyway, he thought grumpily, as he shuffled towards his math room. It was still raining, he was still a little wet and he had to take a math test. Why had he even gotten out of bed? When he sat heavily down at his desk, he found himself playing with the penny in his pocket, he didn't remember stuffing it in there, but it gave him something to fiddle with while he tried to worked off the ball of nerves. With a pencil held in a death grip, calculator and enough nerves to have Alex tapping his foot nervously, he stared at the math test's first question. He stared at it a full minute before he realized he knew the answer. And once he got going, it seemed like every answer was easier to find than the last one and his pace picked up. It surprised him when he finished the last question, what surprised him even more was he was the first one done with the test. After turning the test in, Alex caught a glimpse outside, the storm was gone, the weather was perfect, and he could go surfing! Mentally shouting all right at the top of his lungs Alex sat back down to face the rest of his day. After that math test, everything went smoothly. At lunch he sat around joking with his buddies planning the details of the surfing trip, the blonde flirted with him from the table where she sat, and he got absolutely no homework, a really good thing, as it was Friday. Like every teenager he wanted a free weekend where he could surf, sleep in, and generally laze about. Whistling while he left his last class, Alex was still playing with the penny in his pocket. It was probably the luckiest penny ever, and it was his. With it, he was able to catch the bus, which gave him time to check his computer before the surfing with his friends.  
  
"Hey, Scott!" Alex said as he slid into the chair before the computer, "What's up, man?"  
  
"Nothing much," Scott said, leaning back in his chair. Since they'd found out about each other, they tried to talk every day over the phone or over the web camera and internet. After being raised as an only child, Alex liked the idea that he had a brother, even one who lived on main land. He got to keep his only child status and some extra family and Christmas gifts. "What's up with you?"  
  
"Going surfin' in a bit with some friends," Alex grinned and waggled his eye brows, "Gonna scan the beach for some chicks."  
  
Scott laughed, "Like you pay attention to chicks when you're surfing."  
  
"Hey, when do you have a weekend off? You should drag that chick of yours down here for a visit," Alex loved ribbing Scott about Jean, who he liked to call Scott's chick.  
  
"She's not my chick," Scott mumbled while blushing and Alex burst out laughing, "There's a long weekend coming up, I could see if the Professor would let me go."  
  
"Hey, I've got a lucky penny on my side, I'd bet he'd let you bring the whole Institute." But if he'd look, Alex would have found the penny missing, fallen through a hole in his pocket. It was okay though, the sun stayed bright, he had a good time surfing with his buddies and Scott would be visiting next weekend, everything was okay.  
  
Toad figured his day couldn't get any worse, it wasn't even noon yet and already he'd been beaten up by the X-dorks, the brainless jocks, and Principal Kelley had suspended him. Hey, he just needed a few bucks, and the cheerleaders where all rich enough that stealing a few of their wallets wouldn't make a difference to them. So now, he was hoping around town, trying to find something to do besides going back to the brotherhood home where he would likely suffer some more abuse. Pausing to lift a passer by's wallet, Toad got distracted by something shinny, he could never resist something shinny. Just his luck that the passer by noticed his sticky fingers and slapped him, but Toad didn't walk away completely empty handed. The shinny thing that had caught his eye was a penny, a bright copper penny.  
  
Author's Note: It's a cute little story isn't it? I spent about two hours on it because I kept trying out different ideas. I feel kind of guilty about abusing Alex in the beginning, but the blonde made up for it, don't you think? One of the ideas suggested was Scott hits Toad with his car, and that's where Toad finding the penny came from, I figured he was going to have it rough in another story, he could use some luck. If you're interested in the other stories written for the contest, check out the X of Evolution yahoo group at Please review!  
  



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